Not all content is created equal in the eyes of AI answer engines. After analyzing hundreds of citations from Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, clear patterns emerged.
Here’s what actually matters—backed by data.
1. Content Freshness (3x Impact)
The single strongest predictor of citation is how fresh your content is.
What we found:
- Cited content has a median age of 48 days
- Non-cited content from the same searches: 154 days median
- That’s a 3x difference in freshness
What to do:
- Update your key pages at least quarterly
- Add visible “Last updated” dates (AI can read these)
- Don’t just change the timestamp—actually refresh the content
2. Authoritative Outbound Links (50x Impact)
This surprised us. Cited pages don’t just have more links—they have dramatically more links to authoritative sources.
What we found:
- Cited pages: 2.53 links to .gov/.edu sources on average
- Non-cited pages: 0.05 links
- That’s 50x more authoritative links
What to do:
- Cite primary sources (government data, academic research)
- Link to .edu and .gov domains where relevant
- Don’t just link to other blogs—go to the source
3. Clear Content Structure
AI needs to parse your content. Clean structure helps.
What we found:
- Lists appear in 61% of AI Overviews
- Listicle-style pages have 25% citation rate vs 11% for standard blogs
- FAQ format has the highest citation probability
What to do:
- Use clear heading hierarchy (H1 → H2 → H3)
- Include bulleted and numbered lists
- Add FAQ sections where appropriate
4. Optimal Page Type Signals
Different page types perform differently.
What we found:
- FAQ pages: Highest citation probability
- How-to guides: Strong performers
- Product pages: Moderate (depends on query intent)
- Generic blog posts: Lower citation rates
What to do:
- Match content format to search intent
- Use appropriate schema markup (FAQPage, HowTo, Article)
- GetCited detects your page type and adjusts recommendations accordingly
5. AI Bot Accessibility
You can’t get cited if AI can’t read your content.
What we found:
- Some sites block AI crawlers in robots.txt without realizing it
- GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot each have different user agents
- Blocking one doesn’t block all
What to do:
- Check your robots.txt for AI bot rules
- Ensure GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot are allowed
- GetCited checks all 9 major AI crawlers automatically
What Doesn’t Matter (Surprisingly)
Some things we expected to matter… didn’t:
- Domain authority: No significant correlation (p=0.72)
- Word count: Cited content was actually 62% shorter
- Article schema: Negatively correlated in our B2B dataset
This is why you need data, not assumptions.
Check Your Site
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Based on serp-collector run 2026-01-07, analyzing 170 cited pages vs 585 non-cited organic results.
